Negative-sense RNA viruses are classified into seven families (Rhabdoviridae, Paramyxoviridae, Filoviridae, Bornaviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Bunyaviridae, and Arenaviridae) which include common human pathogens, such as respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, measles virus, and Ebola virus, as well as animal viruses with major economic impact on the poultry and cattle industries (e.g., Newcastle disease virus and Rinderpest virus). The first four families are characterized by nonsegmented genomes, while the latter three have genomes comprised of six-to-eight, three, or two negative-sense RNA segments, respectively. The common feature of negative-sense RNA viruses is the negative polarity of their RNA genome; i.e., the viral RNA (vRNA) is complementary to mRNA and therefore is not infectious by itself. In order to initiate viral transcription and replication, the vRNA has to be transcribed into a plus-sense mRNA or cRNA, respectively, by the viral polymerase complex and the nucleoprotein; for influenza A viruses, the viral polymerase complex is comprised of the three polymerase proteins PB2, PB1, and PA. During viral replication, cRNA serves as a template for the synthesis of new vRNA molecules. For all negative-stranded RNA viruses, non-coding regions at both the 5′ and 3′ termini of the vRNA and cRNA are critical for transcription and replication of the viral genome. Unlike cellular or viral mRNA transcripts, both cRNA and vRNA are neither capped at the 5′ end nor polyadenylated at the very 3′ end.
The basic functions of many viral proteins have been elucidated biochemically and/or in the context of viral infection. However, reverse genetics systems have dramatically increased our knowledge of negative-stranded segmented and non-segmented RNA viruses with respect to their viral replication and pathogenicity, as well as to the development of live attenuated virus vaccines. Reverse genetics, as the term is used in molecular virology, is defined as the generation of virus possessing a genome derived from cloned cDNAs (for a review, see Neumann et al., 2002).
In order to initiate viral replication of negative-stranded RNA viruses, vRNA(s) or cRNA(s) must be coexpressed with the polymerase complex and the nucleoprotein. Rabies virus was the first non-segmented negative-sense RNA virus which was generated entirely from cloned cDNA: Schnell et al. (1994) generated recombinant rabies virus by cotransfection of a cDNA construct encoding the full-length cRNA and protein expression constructs for the L, P, and N proteins, all under control of the T7 RNA polymerase promoter. Infection with recombinant vaccinia virus, which provided T7 RNA polymerase, resulted in the generation of infectious rabies virus. In this T7 polymerase system, the primary transcription of the full length cRNA under control of the T7 RNA polymerase resulted in a non-capped cRNA transcript. However, three guanidine nucleotides, which form the optimal initiation sequence for T7 RNA polymerase, were attached to the 5′ end. In order to create an authentic 3′ end of the cRNA transcript which is essential for a productive infective cycle, the hepatitis delta ribozyme (HDVRz) sequence was used for exact autocatalytic cleavage at the 3′ end of the cRNA transcript.
Since the initial report by Schnell et al. (1994), reverse genetics systems using similar techniques led to the generation of many non-segmented negative strand RNA viruses (Conzelmann, 1996; Conzelmann, 1998; Conzelmann et al., 1996; Marriott et al., 1999; Munoz et al., 2000; Nagai, 1999; Neumann et al., 2002; Roberts et al., 1998; Rose, 1996). Refinements of the original rescue procedure included the expression of T7 RNA polymerase from stably transfected cell lines (Radecke et al., 1996) or from protein expression plasmids (Lawson et al., 1995), or heat shock procedures to increase rescue efficiencies (Parks et al., 1999). Based on the T7 polymerase system, Bridgen and Elliott (1996) created Bunyamwera virus (family Bunyaviridae) from cloned cDNAs and demonstrated the feasibility of artificially generating a segmented negative-sense RNA virus by the T7 polymerase system.
In 1999, a plasmid-based reverse genetics technique was generated based on the cellular RNA polymerase I for the generation of segmented influenza A virus entirely from cloned cDNAs (Fodor et al., 1999; Neumann and Kawaoka, 1999). RNA polymerase I, a nucleolar enzyme, synthesizes ribosomal RNA which, like influenza virus RNA, does not contain 5′ cap or 3′ polyA structures. The RNA polymerase I transcription of a construct containing an influenza viral cDNA, flanked by RNA polymerase I promoter and terminator sequences, resulted in influenza vRNA synthesis (Fodor et al., 1999; Neumann and Kawaoka, 1999; Neumann and Kawaoka, 2001; Pekosz et al., 1999). The system was highly efficient, producing more than 108 infectious virus particles per ml of supernatant of plasmid-transfected cells 48 hours post-transfection. However, the host cell specificity of RNA polymerase I restricts the use of the RNA polymerase I system. For instance, the promoter sequence of the human RNA polymerase I promoter is not recognized by a heterologous RNA polymerase I, e.g., murine RNA polymerase I (Grummt et al., 1982; Learned et al., 1982).
Thus, what is needed is an improved method to prepare segmented, negative strand RNA viruses, e.g., orthomyxoviruses such as influenza A virus, entirely from cloned cDNAs.